Entrepreneurship 4: Financing and Profitability

Start-ups can benefit from a wide variety of financing options on the path to profitability, but how do you know which one to choose? This course explores different financing models, including bootstrapping, organic growth, debt and risk capital, and also provides a clear overview of equity financing including the key types of investors: angels, venture capital, and crowdfunding. You’ll learn about terms, and term sheets, exit modes and what exit strategy might be best for you. By the end of this course, you’ll have an understanding of what success looks like and how it can be financed. You’ll also be ready for the capstone project, in which you will get feedback on your own pitch deck, and may even be selected to pitch to investors from venture capital firms.

From the lesson

Business Models and Keeping Customers

This module was designed to introduce you to some of the key activities you can do in order to reach and sustain profitability. You'll learn the most important rule of entrepreneurship, the different kinds of business models, how to determine who your best customers are and how to develop strategies to retain them. You'll also hear from a successful entrepreneur and venture capitalist from Greylock Partners, who will talk about what indicators of success his firms looks for when deciding where to invest. By the end of this module, you'll be able to use business models to create customers who will come back for more, and know what key attributes to emphasize if you want to attract investment from venture capital.